DON'T TREAD ON ME.

There's a painting hanging on the wall of the great hall of statues in the rotunda of the nation's capital. It is not a normal-sized painting, it fits in proportion to those massive walls. There are several, but this one in particular, is a picture of a room full of polished wooden desks and podia. Men are assembled in two's and three's. In the bottom left-hand portion of the painting is Ben Franklin sitting at a table with quill pens in ink stands. Before him is a document, probably the Constitution, upon which Thomas Jefferson is affixing his signature. Alexander Hamilton stands close-by, waiting to give his signature. If you look closely you can see that Hamilton's foot is stepping on Jefferson's. Or the other way around, it's been a long time. There's a story that guides will divulge, that the painting was commissioned to be with one of the great forebears stepping on the other. The winner was the one to pay the painter the larger bribe. Government is, unfortunately, not unknown to bribes. The jocular contest between two founding fathers is an acceptable bribe. Corporate bribes, Supreme Court bribes, and bribes paid by wealthy benefactors to affect legislation are not! The more widely spread the incidence, the more corrupt the government. 

There are many examples of government leaders having serious disagreements. It's nearly impossible to govern a populace without strong disagreements. I only need to remind you of the shit-show we are currently living in. Thomas Jefferson called his political party the Democratic-Republican party. More than a hyphen divides the two succeeding party's today. He believed in states rights, a concept that the Democratic party of the 1850s used to excuse slavery. He also believed in many things that would make Republicans today apoplectic. We have evolved. We continue to evolve. Not so that party that emerged from the party following the hyphen. Alexander Hamilton led the Federalist party, which advocated for a strong federal government, a concept most Democrats today would not oppose. Republicans today are repulsed by the concept of a strong Federal institution. Yet the Republican deep state, that was formed to make the Supreme Court a majority Republican institution, a deep-state where extravagant gifts can buy loyalty, in order to make the federal government a wholly-owned subsidiary of Republicans, calls itself, the Federalist Society. Their loyalty to Federalism is only skin deep, and is exhibited in a hostility to people whose 'skin-deep' is deeper than most Republicans are comfortable with in crowds. Like the States Rights advocates of the mid-19th century. Go figure. Thomas Jefferson and John Adam's were long-time frenemies. Yet they communicated regularly and both lived to old age and died on the same day. Alexander Hamilton had long-time policy differences with Aaron Burr. Their inability to agree on small items led to a duel that shortened Hamilton's life. Burr fled to Texas to escape prosecution. No surprises there. 

Politics, today is not much different. The lethality of weapons is much greater, but the difficulty to achieve Rheinhold Niebuhr's desired 'proximate solution to intractable problems' remains. The by-product of Aaron Burrs party today makes some of us Democrats fantasize of meeting the other party on a lonely field, accompanied by seconds to load and handle the dueling pistols. Make that federally registered dueling pistols. Most people would not be surprised that Democrats acclaim regulations. It's what Republicans accuse us of. When it comes to economic policy, Republicans also would prefer that business not be regulated. They call it, 'Free market economics'. Meaning, I suppose, that the markets must be free to all who have the money to play in the markets, and those who don't qualify are free to STFU. That may be changing. Even Texas, the place Aaron Burr fled to, is becoming tired of the 'law west of the Pecos. I make no predictions but movement is there.

These policy differences are not just differences of opinion. They should, would in another era, be applied in the way-too-slow legislative ways, that keeps us just short of achieving our Jeffersonian goal. Republicans do not make noble speeches opposing whatever Democratic thing might have succeeded in making it to debate; they oppose anything Democrats might propose. They respond with lies and invective. They attack without offering the customary courtesies. They treat us like enemies, perhaps not understanding the difference between opponent and enemy. None of these things exhibit the Constitutianal rights, or the restrictions on power written in that noble document. We may never get around to trusting the Republican party as it exists today, as it has been steered toward since the Reagan administration. They are not just stepping on our toes. They are stepping on our necks!